Li Danyang, Wang Xiaochun
School of Psychology, Shanghai University of Sport, 650 Qing Yuan Huan Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200438 China.
Cogn Neurodyn. 2022 Jun;16(3):575-590. doi: 10.1007/s11571-021-09733-7. Epub 2021 Nov 2.
Odor context can affect the recognition of facial expressions. However, there is no evidence to date that odor can regulate the processing of emotional words conveyed by visual words. An emotional word recognition task was combined with event-related potential technology. Briefly, 49 adults were randomly divided into three odor contexts (pleasant odor, unpleasant odor, and no odor) to judge the valence of emotional words (positive, negative, and neutral). Both behavioral and Electroencephalography (EEG) data were collected. Both the pleasant odor and unpleasant odor contexts shortened the response time of the subjects to emotional words. In addition, negative words induced greater amplitudes of early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP) than the positive and neutral words. However, the neutral words induced a larger N400 amplitude than the positive and negative words. More importantly, the processing of emotional words was found to be modulated by external odor contexts. For example, during the earlier (P2) processing stages, pleasant and unpleasant odor contexts induced greater P2 amplitudes than the no odor context. In the unpleasant odor context, negative words with the same odor valence induced greater P2 amplitudes than the positive words. During the later (N400) stages, various regions of the brain regions exhibited different results. For example, in the left and right frontal areas of the brain, exposure to positive words in a pleasant odor context resulted in a smaller N400 amplitude than exposure to neutral words in the same context. Meanwhile, in the left and right central regions, emotional words with the same valence as pleasant or unpleasant odor contexts elicited the minimum N400 amplitude. Individuals are very sensitive to emotional information. With deeper processing, different cognitive processes are reflected and they can be modulated by external odors. In the early and late stages of word processing, both pleasant and unpleasant odor contexts exhibited an undifferentiated dominance effect and could specifically modulate affectively congruent words.
气味背景会影响面部表情的识别。然而，迄今为止，尚无证据表明气味能够调节视觉词汇所传达的情感词汇的加工过程。一项情感词汇识别任务与事件相关电位技术相结合。简而言之，49名成年人被随机分为三种气味背景（愉悦气味、不愉快气味和无气味），以判断情感词汇的效价（积极、消极和中性）。同时收集了行为数据和脑电图（EEG）数据。愉悦气味和不愉快气味背景均缩短了受试者对情感词汇的反应时间。此外，消极词汇比积极和中性词汇诱发了更大的早期后负波（EPN）和晚期正电位（LPP）波幅。然而，中性词汇比积极和消极词汇诱发了更大的N400波幅。更重要的是，发现情感词汇的加工受到外部气味背景的调节。例如，在较早的（P2）加工阶段，愉悦和不愉快气味背景比无气味背景诱发了更大的P2波幅。在不愉快气味背景下，具有相同气味效价的消极词汇比积极词汇诱发了更大的P2波幅。在较晚的（N400）阶段，大脑的各个区域呈现出不同的结果。例如，在大脑的左右额叶区域，在愉悦气味背景下接触积极词汇比在相同背景下接触中性词汇产生的N400波幅更小。同时，在左右中央区域，与愉悦或不愉快气味背景具有相同效价的情感词汇诱发的N400波幅最小。个体对情感信息非常敏感。随着加工的深入，不同的认知过程得以体现，并且它们会受到外部气味的调节。在词汇加工的早期和晚期，愉悦和不愉快气味背景均表现出无差异的优势效应，并且能够特异性地调节情感一致的词汇。
